Surrogate markers of angiogenesis in patients treated with anti-angiogenic agents

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

This study is designed to determine the feasibility of several assays that may serve as surrogate markers of angiogenesis in cancer patients being treated with anti-angiogenic drugs. It will try to determine any correlation between these assays and treatment response or activity. For a cancer to grow, it must generate new blood vessels to provide a continuous supply of nutrients. In the laboratory, certain treatments that attack these new blood vessels can cause cancers to shrink. To better design treatments that target these new blood vessels, we need to first understand how the body controls the growth of new blood vessels. Currently, several factors that help control new blood vessels have been identified in laboratory animals. The purpose of this study is to determine whether these factors can help predict which patients will respond to these treatments and which patients will have side effects. Because normal wound healing proceeds by many of the same processes that regulate tumor angiogenesis, wound healing may represent a functional and potentially global in vivo assay of angiogenesis. A series of 3-4 mm skin biopsies will also be performed (four in total) [unreadable] one set of two biopsies before starting the study drug, and another set of two biopsies while taking the study drug. Each set involves an initial 3-4mm biopsy followed by second biopsy in exactly the same location two weeks later. The biopsy sites are examined with a video microscope and a laser Doppler imager. Patients are asked to return approximately 13 times over a 2-week period.